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Seven statues linked to Ovid unearthed near Rome

Sapa-AFP | 2013-01-10 11:58:01.0

A 1772 painting by Jacques Louis David depicting Niobe attempting to shield her children from Artemis and Apollo.

Seven Roman statues depicting one of the myths recounted by celebrated Latin poet Ovid have been unearthed in excellent condition during excavations at an ancient villa near the Italian capital, archaeologists say

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“We had known for a while that there were traces in the area of
Valerio Messala,” a rich Roman general who was patron to Ovid, said
Elena Calandra, superintendent for archaeology in the Lazio
region.

“We carried out exploratory digs before authorising the
full-scale evacuation, and found Messala’s swimming pool with the
seven statues at the bottom,” she said.

The two-metre-high statues are “in an excellent state of
conservation,” she added.

It is thought they may have fallen into the pool during an
earthquake around 2 000 years ago.

They depict the myth of Niobe, who bore 14 children and boasted
of her fertility to the goddess Leto, who had but two offspring of
her own.

An enraged Leto sought revenge by having her children, Apollo
and Artemis, kill Niobe’s, and the devastated mother fled to the
mountains where she turned to stone and wept for evermore.

The myth is recounted in Ovid’s masterpiece, Metamorphoses — but
were Messala’s statues inspired by the Latin poet’s tale or did he
base his story on the statues?

Ovid

“We know that there were numerous representations of the
myth in paintings and sculptures, in ancient Grece as well. Before
leaning towards one hypothesis or another, we have to precisely
date the statues — a lengthy job,” Calandra said.